Monday, February 24, 2014

Jalie 2908 - Little Girl Jeans

My younger daughter had her sixth birthday in January. I purchased some clothes for her as a gift. One of the items was a pair of jeans and they were a terrible fit. We took them back and tried a different size, but they were all bad. She was bummed about that, so I told her I would make a new pair for her.

Awhile ago someone gave me a few cuts of denim. They're all too short to be used for me and I don't really care for the finish of most of them, but they're great for kids' clothes. The fabric I used for these jeans does have a bit of stretch and a very soft feel, making these actually quite comfortable.

I used Jalie 2908 and am really happy with the result. The only modifications I made were for length (adding some), leg shape (straight vs. boot cut) and the waistband. I wasn't impressed with the waistband the last time I used this pattern, so this time I did my own thing. I made a pattern piece to match the circumference of the top of the assembled jeans and then cut out a few small wedges from the top edge down. After I overlapped the cut edges of the wedges, I had a gently curved waistband piece. Adding seam allowances and center front overlap finished it off.

I left off the belt loops and rivets in the name of speed and efficiency. The pocket bags (overexposed in the photo) and fly guard are made from a pink animal print cotton. The inner waistband is finished with bias tape - shocking pink, of course!

At our house, we have a bit of a love/hate relationship with buttonhole elastic in waistbands. Love: the adjustability. Hate: the buttons seem to really irritate hip bones. The waistband of these jeans was pretty close to being just right for size, but I suspected they would bag out and droop a bit due to the stretch in the denim. So, instead of the buttonhole elastic, I just added elastic to the back half of the waistband and fully enclosed it rather than making it adjustable. Since the waistband wasn't too much too big, I didn't make the elastic much smaller than the back. It seems to be working well.

For a fun detail, I used my daughter's initials on the back pockets - JB. The right pocket is the mirror image.

I'm happy with how they turned out. She likes that they're comfortable with lots of PINK and I like that they've got some room for her to grow. I don't like that she's already 6! Wah! How does that happen?!?